Déjeuner des Canadiens : bilan de l’année 2022 (TSN 690)
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BlazeOfGlory72
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Déjeuner des Canadiens : bilan de l’année 2022 (TSN 690)
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***Summary***
**Kent Hughes**
* They start off by talking about the hiring of Kent Hughes after a disastrous start to the 2021-2022 season. Gallo talks about how Kent Huhges did not initially have any interest in being a GM, and had to be pursuaded to take the job here. They play a clip from Hughes where he talks about how he sees the Habs as a offensive minded team going forward. He says that while you have to be defensively responsible, you can look round the league and see that offensive often wins the day. His vision of the team going forward is to be a fast, possession based team.
* Gallo says that he was imediately encouraged by the hiriing of Hughes due to his comments about not wanting to build a team that would compete once and a while, but wanted to build a team that would compete year in and year out. This was a dramatic shift from Bergevin and his « anything can happen » philosphy. It’s still a work in progress obviously, but Gallo has been impressed with how Hughes has managed to acquire so much young talent and draft picks so quickly. Campbell adds to this, saying Hughes has been hamstrung by the cap constraints left to him by Bergevin, but thinks that by this Summer, a lot of cap space should be opened up.
* Campbell comments about how he likes how open and communicative Kent Hughes is. Gallo says that we are still in the honeymoon phase with Hughes, but if things are not going well 2 or 3 years from now, people will probably not be as enamored with him.
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**Trade Deadline**
* They talk about the Lehkonen trade, with Campbell saying that right now, he is still on the fence about it. We’ve seen how good Lehkonen can be when he plays with some high end talent, and Barron right now is kind of a question mark. He adds to this, saying that our wing position right now is pretty shakey, and someone like Lehkonen would have been a good fit on the team right now.
* Gallo talks about how Lehkonen was 27 when we traded him, and an probably would have been in his 30’s by the time we wanted to compete. Also, Lehkonen was up for a new contract, and given our cap crunch, we may not have been able to afford him either way. Ultimately we ended up with a former 1st round pick in Barron, and Hughes had shown an interest in acquiring prospects who were closer to the NHL rather than picks.
* On the Tyler Toffoli trade, Campbell is skeptical of the prospect we acquired (Emil Heineman). Both Campbell and Gallo liked acquiring a 1st round pick in the deal however. Gallo adds that Toffoli has on of the best bargain contracts in the league, but he was also on the wrong side of his prime, and wouldn’t have fit our window.
* They then talk about the Kulak trade, saying that Edmonton seems very happy with him, to the point that they re-signed him. The Habs managed to get a 2nd round pick for a depth defenseman on an expiring contract however, which is an obvious win.
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**St. Louis**
* They change topics to the coaching situation in Montreal over the last year. Originally Gorton and Hughes had said that they wanted to keep Ducharme for the full year, but things got so bad that they felt they needed to make a change. Gallo says that the atmosphere surrounding the team under Ducharme was « toxic », and it would have likely gotten worse. Gallo thinks that Gorton and Hughes were truthful when they said that they wanted to keep Ducharme at first, but the situation changed and they were forced to reconsider their position.
* On the hiring of St. Louis, both Gallo and Campbell were surprised by the hiring. It was an outside the box hire, but St. Louis seems like someone who is on the same page as Hughes and Gorton. He’s someone they can work with. Gallo talks about how Ducharme has made some comments that he didn’t know that the mandate was for the team to play the young players, and was still trying to win games. This shows a breakdown in communication between the coach and front office.
* With St. Louis, we have someone who can inspire and motivate the players. They don’t think it is just coincidence that players like Caufield and Suzuki exploded under St. Louis after struggling under Ducharme. St. Louis still has some rough spots, but he is someone who is willing to learn and improve. This is a growth year for everyone. Gallo does wonder however what St. Louis will look like as a coach when the goal is no longer to develop players, but to be at the top of the standings and compete for a Cup.
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**Carey Price**
* They then talk about Carey Price. Gallo reminices about Price’s last game, and jokes about how after an entire career of getting no goal support from his team mates, we go and score 10 in Price’s final game. They also comment on how Price’s family was in the stands for that last game, and how it seems Price was able to go out on his own terms.
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**The Draft**
* On the 2022 Draft, they talk about how there was so much drama surrounding the Habs pick, specifically whether we would go with Wright or Slafkovsky. They play a clip from Slafkovsky’s post draft interview, where he talks about how much he loves scoring goals, even more than his favorite food (pizza). Slaf also talks about how much it means to be the highest drafted Slovak player since Marian Gaborik, and hope it inspires more Slovak youth to put on the skates. He also comments that he would like to play with Suzuki and Caufield, saying « I am big, they are little… bit shorter ».
* It wasn’t just the pick that was dramatic, but we also made the trade of the draft, trading Romanov for a 1st, then flipped it for Kirby Dach.
* After the draft, Hughes did an interview with TSN 690, which they plays some clips from. They first asked Hughes about why he drafted Slafkovsky, to which he responded that he had 3 players he team was looking hard at. Slafkovsky started to emerge as the front runner the more they watched and talked to him however. On the Kirby Dach trade, Hughes said that he wanted the team to get bigger and faster, especially down the middle. Ideally he would have like to trade picks rather than a player like Romanov, but he thought the deal was worth it.
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**Looking to the future**
* They finish up by talking about the future of the team. Gallo says that the Habs already have two key pieces in Suzuki and Caufield. Suzuki fills the role of a top line, two way centre, and we have the goal scoring winger in Caufield. The hosts talk about how Caufield could be a 50 goal scorer if this team had a decent power play, but as is, his ceiling is probably 40 goals.
* They also talk about how Guhle and Slafkovsky are solid pieces. Campbell thinks Guhle will be a top pair defenseman, but Gallo is more skeptical, saying on a championship team Guhle would probably be a 2nd pairing guy.
* Gallo would like to know what the timeline is for this team to be competitive. Being a developing team that doesn’t care about the standings is fine for now, but if we are still doing this by 2024 it will not be so pleasant. Campbell thinks that the upcoming offseason will be a big decision point for this team. We’ll free up a lot of cap space from expiring contracts, and we’ll have to make the decision on if we are ready to spend and try to be competitive, or if we hold off and spend another year developing.
* They finish up by talking about how crazy a year it was, and how they didn’t even get to talk about things like Shea Weber or Suzuki becoming captain.
Merry Christmas bitches